The Mappers celebrate the long season of heat by refusing to turn their PCs on and instead delving into the wide world of mobile games. This is a secret place, full of dark mystery and a thousand alluring traps, but they will persevere. Teasing apart of a puzzle is just human nature. The soul of humanity abhors a secret. What could possibly go wrong?

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

We’re back with a new Abnormal Mapping, this time with the return (after four weeks) of the glorious Game Club! In the meantime, we deviate from Video Games to talk about all the things that aren’t, mostly TV and movies and our feelings about how episodic shows are broken and need rehabilitation. And then we talk about how games are broken and need rehabilitation. And then then we talk about how WE’RE broken and need rehabilitation. It’s a cycle that never ends, just like this podcast. Maybe.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

We said we’d do it, and we weren’t lying. This is our first free form episode, where we just sit and talk about games. Please let us know if it’s okay or not! Neither of us had a lot of confidence in our ability to carry a podcast like this, so we really need validation or feedback. Emails to podcast@abnormalmapping.com!

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

The Abnormal Mapping podcast survives after its final episode to reach this, its milestone episode. It has been five decades since we began our humble journey, from our first game club of Space War through the Arcade Years and the Decade of Nintendo to this, our current configuration in our fiftieth annual episode. Blades will bleed. Shields will shatter. And we’ll travel back through our memories of a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, when the Younglings gathered around their vidscreens and peered into the void to ask the age old question:

“Master Skywalker, what company won E3?”

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Music This Episode:Blown Away by Kevin MacLeodJoy by Shoji MeguroFootball Crazy by Robin Hall and Jimmie MacgregorStar Wars and the Revenge of the Sith by John WilliamsBallad of the Wind Fish by Minako Hamano and Kozue IshikawaUnder Logic by Yuzo Koshiro

Hey everyone, Jackson here! It’s been an incredibly difficult month for me, with emergencies of both health and housing springing up, so it’s taken me a little longer than usual to edit this episode. But it’s here, and it’s worth the wait! We talk Zootopia’s politics, the comedic genius of Tyler Perry and get into our movie club: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.

A dark day comes in the lives of any video games person. A day where the joy is gone, and the game pad falls to the floor in utter defeat. This is not true despair, though, for that instead can be found on the internet, where said intrepid gamespeople go when their play is through, only to find a cesspool of fear and hate and suffering. That is the true gauntlet of horrors, eroding all of us into shapeless forms of old dreams, spent energies, and a dim animal sense that the world shouldn’t so easily gobble up things that are fun and convert them into things that are burdens.

For three intrepid gamespeople, in one tiny little boat of a podcast, in an endless sea of trivial bullshit? That day is today.

Come for the end. Stay for the beginning. Listen as we render all good things to dust and say goodbye to a friend in this, the last episode of a podcast that was, and a discussion of a podcast that might yet be.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

May rolls around and so too does another fine episode of Trashpect Ratio! We mention superheroes for all of three seconds before moving into chat about Beyonce’s Lemonade and Zulawski’s Possession. Click that play button or subscribe on the podcast app of your choice for monthly, interesting movie discussion between good friends!

At last, the time has come. Just under a year ago, I started playing the Metal Gear games, and now, 42 articles and 5 podcasts later, the journey is complete. I hope you have enjoyed the ride, and if you’re new, then feel free to come along on this quest anytime. For this final episode, we’re discussing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the honest-swear-to-god-for-real final game in the Metal Gear Solid Trilogy. Come on in for a chat on trauma and colonialism, exploitation and capitalism, and most importatly, The Life and Times of Punished “Venom” Snake.

I am joined in this final episode by @woundww, a friend and writer for the Arcade Review –currently on Kickstarter! – many thanks to them for smart insights throughout.

Fair Warning: There are a couple audio issues in the podcast! Nothing too bad; a little echo, some birds in the background, but I thought I’d give a heads up nonetheless! Enjoy!

Things Discussed

Metals Gear 1 – V

Music This EpisodeHeres To You by Joan BaezQuiet’s Theme by Akihiro Honda, Ludvig Forrsell, and Stefanie JoostenNuclear by Mike Oldfield

The Mappers take a turn away from video games this spring to talk about M’s experiences watching bad super-hero movies and how many of the wrong things they have learned from video games. With Marvel’s Civil War nearly upon us, the question becomes: how much premium currency do I have to spend to unlock single-mecha-glove Tony Stark in Marvel Heroes/Future Fight/Conquest of Champions/Disney Infinity 3.0? We then talk about how weird and hard it is to write kids entertainment, which I guess could be about Civil War but definitely isn’t because they don’t really make those movies for kids.

They make them for Loot Crate subscribers.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Music This EpisodeBlown Away by Kevin MacLeodMy Enemy by Hans Zimmer, The Magnificent Six, Pharrell Williams, Johnny MarrMill Hill theme by UnknownThe Wind Can be Still by ConcernedApeSandstorm by Darude

In this month’s Trashpect Ratio we are joined by a very special guest,Shannon Strucci, to talk about Gone Girl! It’s a chat that’s been a long time coming, and it’s well worth the wait, some give us a download and take a listen to the podcast! It’s good!

Big thanks to Shannon for showing up on our lil show, she’s a certified Cool Person that you should follow, and can be found on twitter,tumblr and youtube!